On the previous page I showed you two examples of how I leave comments on website content. If you are going to leave a comment on someone’s website you need to read the post you are commenting on, or at least read parts of it so you can give an appropriate relevant response.

EXAMPLE COMMENTS

Below are a couple examples of comments using the same website topics from the previous page. These are examples of comments you should NOT leave on a website. The first one is about stress management and the second a Wealthy Affiliate review on a Bootcamp website.

Stress Management

Hey Michael. Great post. I liked the information you shared. Everything was easy to understand. Thank you.

OR

Thank you for this post. Yes stress is bad but I learned a lot more from your content.


Notice how each of the above comments are short in length, are basic generic comments, and none of them inspire any kind of engagement. Always include a relevant question within your comment, even if you have no intention of viewing the answer from the website owner. You should though just in case you receive a question in return.

Wealthy Affiliate Review

Great WA review John. I like the way you explained everything. It was clear and straightforward. I hope my review is as good as yours.

OR

I really liked your review. If I wasn’t already a member of WA I would have joined after reading this post. Keep up the good work.

OR

John your website looks great.It is easy to navigate and has lots of great information. Could you look at my website here <Link to Website> and let me know if I am going in the right direction?

What do you recognize about all three of those lame comments above? You can tell that they were written by Wealthy Affiliate members. How? It is pretty obvious, even to a non-WA member that those comments are not as genuine as they could be.

First off, other than two of the comments saying WA instead of Wealthy Affiliate, the first one indicates the commenter also has a review, the second one says they are a WA member, and the third (is actually feedback not a comment) asked me to give feedback on their website.

NOTE:

Most times you do not want to comment and say that you are a WA member for posts that either are reviews of Wealthy Affiliate or posts that recommend Wealthy Affiliate. By doing so your comments will be looked at as biased to non-WA members who will read the comments. Pretend you are not a member before you reply.

You also do not want to type WA. Spell out Wealthy Affiliate. Only members for the most part will say WA. Even though the last comment (which is actually feedback) is the only one asking a question, it should be about the topic of the content and not asking for feedback.

The only time I would consider it acceptable to have the commenter say they are a WA member is for comments on a post where Wealthy Affiliate is being directly compared to another competing product. Like the SBI vs WA review I did on my website.

NEXT UP = What I do when getting low quality comments




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SStubbins1 Premium
This is extremely valuable information. Thank you for being specific, giving examples and putting your personal spin on this article.
Peace💗
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boomergp08 Premium
It was my pleasure to share this information. I had thought about creating this tutorial for some time now and only did so after getting some poor quality comments on a recent blog post.
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LuigiCappel Premium
That's really interesting. I had no idea that Google would see comments as extra content. I guess that also means they see it as current, which must also have value.
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boomergp08 Premium
Yes to both of your statements. Google does consider comments and their replies as extra content and even indexes that content.

This is why it is possible to rank for certain keywords that may appear only in your comments. And Google does use comment interaction to measure the current state of a post.
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MineThatBird Premium
This is very helpful! I was surprised to learn that a comment can be edited - I had no idea comments could be edited; I thought it was either keep or delete if you have a low-quality comment.

For comments versus feedback, I think many people could use feedback before comments -- real feedback that gives them specific areas (even grammar, typos, non-functioning links, etc) that should be fixed right away, before seeking comments on a post.

A year ago or so when I joined WA, there was a process for requesting and giving feedback; I took a lot of time and effort in giving specific feedback to help improve posts/websites of WA members who had requested feedback.

Then, WA seems to have switched to a system of requesting and receiving comments .... instead of feedback. Do you know whether WA still offers a feedback request mechanism (instead of comments directly to a webpage/post)?

Sometimes I'll click on a comment request link, see a lot of typos, grammatical errors (the kind that make a reader click away pretty quickly), format issues, broken links, and I'd like to help that WA member improve their website/post, but I won't add that kind of feedback as a comment (of course, no one would want feedback like that in the comments for everyone to read).

So in that case, I won't leave a comment, and also don't offer feedback since, as far as I'm aware, there no longer seems to be a WA mechanism for getting points/credit of some kind for taking the time and effort to offer these kinds of corrections/feedback for improvement etc. It is a lot of work and takes time and effort to offer real feedback like this, but it's probably more important in many cases than comments, as the feedback can lead to immediate and direct improvements that may keep real visitors/readers on the page/website longer.

Thanks again for your post, always look forward to reading your tips, suggestions and points of view.

Kate
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EdwinBernard Premium Plus
Kate,

When you click the Website Tab, the next page will show you two options. Site Comment. And Site Feedback.

It seems that people request less feedback than comments.

If you see a really bad post, I suggest ignoring it or just focus on parts you like so that you can engage it in a positive manner. If you really want to help the author, I suggest you send them a PM and ask if they would like some feedback privately before offering anything. If they do ask, then go ahead. If they don't want feedback, that is their loss. Move on.

I fell foul of giving feedback with the intention to help the author. Only to get my comments disapproved with the reason they weren't asking for feedback. Fare enough.

Take care.

Edwin
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boomergp08 Premium
I agree Kate that many members, especially those new to affiliate marketing, have a greater need for feedback than comments. However one can be as blunt or critical when giving feedback, whereas this is something you do not want to convey as a website comment.

When I give website comments and I notice things (grammar, bad links, not enough white space,...) wrong with the content, I make a note of it and proceed to give a quality comment. I then send a PM to the member describing in detail what I had seen wrong.

Personally I do not use Site Comments to get my comments nor do I use Site Feedback. I am sure I will with a new website but not with my current sites. You can still access Site Feedback by clicking on "Websites" in the left side menu and then selecting it from the popup menu. The link is below.

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/website-feedback
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MineThatBird Premium
Great points, Edwin. Very helpful. Feedback is such an invaluable path to improvement; I am a member of Toastmasters (the public speaking organization) and thanks to Toastmasters I look forward to feedback since I know it always helps me to improve.
Thanks again,
Kate
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MineThatBird Premium
Thanks, I agree about not ever having any feedback in a comment, especially nothing that could sound in any way negative.

Including when it comes to constructive feedback that someone has requested to help them improve, as we do every week in Toastmasters (public speaking) meetings.

The feedback in Toastmasters is the #1 way in which Toastmasters members (around the world) all improve our public speaking; even the people listening to the feedback for someone else's speech, learn ways to improve their own future public speaking.
Feedback osmosis :)

Thanks again,
Kate
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boomergp08 Premium
You are welcome. Your learning through feedback osmosis reminds me of how people can learn things here in WA by reading though the comments/questions left by others and the replies.
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MineThatBird Premium
That's exactly right! You just made me feel a lot better about all the time I have been spending reading and learning from all of the questions/comments/replies : ) I'm gaining more skills and knowledge via WA osmosis :)
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EdwinBernard Premium Plus
Hi Kate,

What District are you in? I am in District 52. Not as active now. But was extremely active until 10 years ago after I completed my stint as District Governor (called District Director now) and gradually reduced my involvement. I'm just a member of two clubs now.

You are correct how Toastmasters can help us give feedback. A word of caution. Do not use the Toastmasters evaluation techniques in giving comments. That is more applicable to Feedback.

All the best to you.

Cheers.

Edwin
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boomergp08 Premium
This is one of the reasons why WA is a great learning experience beyond the initial training from Kyle and Jay. Knowledge is shared here through additional tutorials like this AND in the comments / replies to other WA posts and tutorials. I personally have gained extra knowledge in this way.
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MineThatBird Premium
Hi Edwin, District 37 :) I agree, the important distinction is that any kind of constructive feedback should be given as feedback (via WA feedback when someone has asked for feedback), and NOT as a comment on someone's website.

Boomer's post gives great examples of how to give comments!

I also wouldn't give any unrequested feedback via PM here at WA, either. I only have given feedback when a person had submitted their webpage specifically asking for feedback. (Even when I see lots of typos, grammatical errors, broken links ... I just would never want to offend anyone so I don't offer feedback unless someone has specifically requested feedback.)

Cheers,
Kate
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manna4star2 Premium
Once again I have learned some very important info from you 2 days in a row.
I got started back in Site Comments on 27 April and out of 36, I have had 2 disapproved simply because of the reasons you cited above. Low quality, gave feedback instead of a comment, or totally off point.
This tutorial is really going to help me henceforward to give better quality than what I have been.

Thanks for the tutorial Boomer.

Sonny
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boomergp08 Premium
You are welcome Sonny. Leaving quality engaging comments is a win-win for the website owner as well as the person leaving a comment with hopes of receiving one in return.
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Triblu Premium
Hey Rob,

Great tutorial once again... Thank YOU.

When getting lame comments on my local business website (Ontario, Canada) from those in India, I simply tag them as spam and then delete them... adding the IP address to to Blacklist so that those using that IP address can no longer make comments.

So, the problem of lame comments is more than those of us who are new to WA, I'm sure.

Thanks to your great tutorial, more of us will now know better... that leaving quality comments really will pay off in the long run. :-))
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boomergp08 Premium
Though this tutorial is aimed solely at WA members commenting on other member websites, most definitely does the problem of lame comments extends beyond WA.

In those instances if they are either really poorly written and/or they contain a link, I immediately delete them as trash. I like the idea of adding the IP address to a blacklist.
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